A former KCAL and KCBS anchor has filed a $5 million lawsuit claiming he was fired as a result of he’s white.
Jeff Vaughan is represented by America First Legislation, a conservative authorized group that targets range, fairness and inclusion applications, calling them unlawful “anti-white discrimination.”
Vaughn labored on the CBS-owned station group for eight years till leaving final September. Within the lawsuit, he mentioned he was by no means knowledgeable of the explanations for his dismissal.
“However it’s apparent,” the lawsuit says. “He was fired as a result of he was an older white heterosexual male.”
America First Legislation Agency additionally represents Brian Beneker, the script coordinator for “SEAL Staff” who’s suing CBS for failing to rent him for a writing job on the present. On this case, CBS cited the First Modification to help its proper to interact in various hiring practices.
Each lawsuits cite CBS’ said purpose of reaching 40% Black, Indigenous and Individuals of Colour (BIPOC) tv writing rooms by 2021-22 and 50% by 2022-23.
Vaughn’s lawsuit additionally notes that CBS Information CEO Wendy McMahon has been praised for prioritizing DEI initiatives and hiring and selling ladies and folks of shade.
Vaughn claims he was excluded from protection of the 9/11 anniversary earlier than being fired. He additionally mentioned he was excluded from information broadcast billboards that favored his non-white and feminine colleagues, and that he was excluded from social occasions.
In 2023, the community auditioned candidates to succeed him and introduced them into the studio whereas Vaughn was working, the swimsuit says.
“The entire people who got here to interview for his place have been younger minorities,” the lawsuit states.
The station group employed Chauncy Glover, who has been an anchor at ABC’s Houston affiliate for the previous eight years. The lawsuit alleges that Glover, who’s black, had “minimal” expertise, regardless that Glover had labored in tv information since graduating from faculty in 2007.
In an identical discrimination case, Kyle Hunter sued KCAL and KCBS in 2012, claiming the community refused to rent him as a climate forecaster as a result of they have been solely on the lookout for “younger, enticing ladies.”
In that case, CBS argued that its alternative of climate forecasters was a matter of free speech, overturning a discrimination cost.
A California appeals courtroom sided with CBS, discovering that Hunter had not supplied sufficient proof to show he was a sufferer of discrimination.
“The truth that CBS employed two younger ladies to function prime-time climate anchors doesn’t help a rational inference of pretext or discriminatory animus,” the appeals courtroom dominated in that case.
